Gaming

FUCK. THE. ALWAYS. ONLINE. PARADIGM.

I hate not being able to pause a game, particularly a single player game. I think Elite Dangerous solidified my hatred of this, by not telling you the game is still running when you're on the "pause" menu.

"B-B-BU-BUT it's a simulation and you can't pause real life so it makes it more real"

It's a game, even if it's a simulation game. It's a toy for grown-ups. A very nice and fun and relaxing toy, but a toy nonetheless. It's not more important than a phone call, call at the door, crying child, hungry cat, partner who needs a hand with something etc.

This probably extends to being able to save anywhere and rejoin later, but I think that one is covered pretty well by everyone else :)

Any sort of not respecting the player's time: grind, making the player do the computer's job (e.g., not having an auto-sort button for the inventory), time sinks, unskippable cutscenes, slow walking etc.

limited inventories are kind of abused currently and that unlimited inventory systems would give more player choices.

In some sense that's correct. You'd have more options, but you wouldn't take them. Having a limited inventory forces you to make choices. Yes, you can use that scroll/potion/whatever, because you're gonna run out of room, so feel free. On the other hand, I think that many devs don't consider inventory management enough! I think that it's often an afterthought and could use more dev attention.

What game mechanics do you love and hate?

Hate: instakills. Diablo 4 and Risk of Rain 2 are my current games that have this. ROR2 is not as bad, you can prevent this by getting enough defensive items. D4 is worse about this. You can be chewing thru trash mobs just fine but get to a boss and immediately die. There's no ramp up to this.

Escort quests! Especially when the person you're escorting moves incredibly slow (except when running toward obvious danger).